Non-contact current and voltage sensor having detachable housing incorporating multiple ferrite cylinder portions

ABSTRACT

A detachable current and voltage sensor provides an isolated and convenient device to measure current passing through a conductor such as an AC branch circuit wire, as well as providing an indication of an electrostatic potential on the wire, which can be used to indicate the phase of the voltage on the wire, and optionally a magnitude of the voltage. The device includes a housing formed from two portions that mechanically close around the wire and that contain the current and voltage sensors. The current sensor is a ferrite cylinder formed from at least three portions that form the cylinder when the sensor is closed around the wire with a hall effect sensor disposed in a gap between two of the ferrite portions along the circumference to measure current. A capacitive plate or wire is disposed adjacent to, or within, the ferrite cylinder to provide the indication of the voltage.

The present Application is a Continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 13/451,524, filed on Apr. 19, 2012, which is a Continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/024,181, filed on Feb. 9, 2011 andissued as U.S. Pat. No. 8,680,845 on Mar. 25, 2014, and claims prioritythereto under 35 U.S.C. 120. The disclosure of the above-referencedParent U.S. Patent Application is incorporated herein by reference.

This invention was made with government support under DE-EE0002897awarded by the Department of Energy. The government has certain rightsto this invention.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is related to sensors providing input to powermeasurement systems, and more specifically to a non-contact sensor thatincludes an electrostatic voltage sensor and an electromagnetic currentsensor that can be used to detect the voltage and current at a wire of apower distribution system.

2. Description of Related Art

A need to measure power consumption in AC line powered systems isincreasing due to a focus on energy efficiency for both commercial andresidential locations. In order to provide accurate measurements, thecharacteristics of the load must be taken into account along with thecurrent drawn by the load.

In order to determine current delivered to loads in an AC powerdistribution system, and in particular in installations already inplace, current sensors are needed that provide for easy coupling to thehigh voltage wiring used to supply the loads, and proper isolation isneeded between the power distribution circuits/loads and the measurementcircuitry.

Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a sensor that can provideisolated current draw information and permit load characteristics to betaken into account using outputs of a single sensor in an AC powerdistribution circuit.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is embodied in a current and voltage sensing device andits method of operation. The current sensing device includes a currentsensor and a voltage sensor both integrated in a housing that can bedetachably coupled to a wire and provides outputs indicative of thecurrent passing through the wire, as well as an electric potential onthe wire.

The housing may be a clamshell containing portions of a current sensorformed from a ferrite cylinder, which when closed around the wire, formeither a complete ferrite cylinder, or one with a gap along thecircumference. A semiconductor magnetic field sensor may be included inthe gap and used to measure the current passing through the wire, or awinding may be provided around the ferrite cylinder along its axis. Thevoltage sensor may be a separate cylindrical plate, another wire orother suitable conductor either offset from the current sensor along thelength of the wire, or may be a foil located inside of the ferritesensor or a film deposited on an inside surface of the ferrite.

The foregoing and other objectives, features, and advantages of theinvention will be apparent from the following, more particular,description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, as illustratedin the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

The novel features believed characteristic of the invention are setforth in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, as well asa preferred mode of use, further objectives, and advantages thereof,will best be understood by reference to the following detaileddescription of the invention when read in conjunction with theaccompanying Figures, wherein like reference numerals indicate likecomponents, and:

FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B are isometric views and FIG. 1C is a cross-sectionview of a sensor according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is an isometric view and FIG. 2B is a cross-section view of asensor according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3A is an isometric view and FIG. 3B is a cross-section view of asensor according to yet another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4A is an isometric view and FIG. 4B is a cross-section view of asensor according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an electrical block diagram illustrating circuits forreceiving inputs from sensors according to embodiments of the presentinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention encompasses sensors for current and voltagesensing features for providing input to power measurement systems. Forexample, the present invention can provide input to power monitoringequipment in computer server rooms, in which branch circuits distributepower to various electronic chassis power supplies, and in which it isbeneficial to provide power usage information for the various branchcircuits to power monitoring and/or system control utilities within acomputer operating environment. Other applications include powermonitoring for commercial and/or residential energy management.

Referring now to FIGS. 1A-1C, a sensor 10 in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention is shown. A plastic sensor body 12encloses a current sensor and a voltage sensor, that provide informationabout a magnitude and phase of a current passing through a wire 3 aroundwhich sensor body is detachably secured as shown in FIG. 1B. A latch 13secures a top portion and a bottom portion of sensor body 12 together,along with a hinge formed on sensor body 12 at an opposite side fromlatch 13. A current sensing portion of sensor 10 is formed by threeferrite pieces 14A, 14B that form a ferrite cylinder around wire 3, whensensor body 12 is closed. Top ferrite piece 14A forms a half-cylinder,while ferrite pieces 14B define a gap between ferrite pieces 14B and inthe circumference of the ferrite cylinder, in which current sensingelement 17, which is generally a semiconductor magnetic field sensor,such as a Hall effect sensor, is disposed. Current sensing element 17 isshown as having interface wires 15 extending from its body, but othertypes of terminals may be used as an alternative manner of providingconnections to current sensing element 17. An aperture is formed throughsensor body 12 to receive current sensing element 17. A voltage sensoris formed by metal plates 18A, 18B, which provide capacitive coupling tobranch circuit wire 3 and provide an output via interface wire 15A,which may also alternatively be replaced with a terminal or othersuitable electrical connector. The voltage sensor provides an ACwaveform that is at least indicative of the phase of the voltage on wire3 and may be calibrated to provide an indication of the magnitude of thevoltage if needed. Electrical connection to metal plate 18B is providedby interface wire 15A and electrical connection to metal plate 18A isprovided by contact between metal plates 18A and 18B when sensor body 12is latched closed. Metal plate 18A includes a contact 27 and metal plate18B includes a mating recess 29 to improve electrical contact betweenmetal plates 18A and 18B, so that connection of one of metal plates 18Aand 18B to the measurement system is needed to provide voltage sensing.Contacts 27 and mating recesses 29 are optional and may be omitted inother embodiments of the invention, and electrical connection may beprovided only by contact between metal places 18A and 18B, oralternatively by other suitable connection improvement techniques. FIG.1C illustrates such an embodiment so that metal plates 18A and 18Bmaking contact when sensor body 12 is closed, and shows the connectionof interface wire 15A to metal plate 18B.

Referring now to FIGS. 2A and 2B, a sensor 10A in accordance withanother embodiment of the invention is shown. Sensor 10A is similar tosensor 10 of FIGS. 1A-1C, so only differences between them will bedescribed below. Rather than including current sensing and voltagesensing elements that are laterally displaced along the axis of thecylinder formed by sensor body 12 as in sensor 10 shown in FIG. 1A, insensor 10A, the voltage sensor and current sensors are concentricallyarranged, reducing the length of sensor 10A over that of sensor 10,while providing similar capacitive area for the voltage sensing andferrite volume for the current sensing. Therefore, sensor 10A includesmetal plates 18C and 18D having shapes differing from that of than metalplates 18A-18B in sensor 10, and ferrite pieces 14C-14D differ fromferrite pieces 14A-14B of sensor 10, as well. Metal plates 18C and 18D,provide metal layers within sensor 10A that may be inserts mechanicallysecured by sensor shell 12A, or metal films bonded to or deposited onthe interior surfaces of ferrite pieces 14C-14D. In the illustratedexample, metal plates 18C and 18D include jogs at their ends in order toprovide electrical contact between them and ferrite pieces 14C-14D donot make contact as in sensor 10 of FIGS. 1A-1C, and therefore the totalcircumferential gap in the ferrite cylinder is increased slightly.However, in alternative embodiments, the jogs may be omitted from metalplates 18C and 18D and alternative electrical connection techniques maybe employed, by including a second interface wire 15A bonded to metalplate 18C and/or additional interface metal along the edges of sensorbody 12 outside of the ends of ferrite pieces 14C-14D, which can then beextended to make contact as in sensor 10 of FIGS. 1A-1C.

Referring now to FIGS. 3A and 3B, a sensor 10B in accordance with yetanother embodiment of the invention is shown. Sensor 10B is similar tosensor 10A of FIGS. 2A-2B, so only differences between them will bedescribed below. Rather than locating current sensing element 17 in agap between two ferrite pieces 14B as in sensor 10A of FIGS. 2A-2B, insensor 10B, current sensing element is located between two ferritepieces 14E and 14F that extend around the entire circumference of sensor10B, excepting the thickness of current sensing element 17, andtherefore only one circumferential gap is formed provided that ferritepieces 14E and 14F are in contact when sensor 10B is closed at the areaopposite the hinge in sensor body 12B. Recesses are formed in sensorbody 12B to accept current sensing element 17, which may be bonded to,or molded within sensor body 12B, as may also be performed for any ofthe integration of current sensing element 17 in the presentapplication. Metal plates 18E and 18F are shown as having jogs onlyopposite of the hinged portion of sensor body 12B, to provide forferrite pieces 14E and 14F extending all of the circumferential distanceto the body of current sensing element 17 and since ferrite pieces 14Eand 14F are not in contact along the hinged portion of sensor body 12B.However, in accordance with an alternative embodiment of the invention,metal plates 18E and 18F may include features within the gap formedbetween ferrite pieces 14E and 14F along the hinged portion of sensorbody 12B to provide additional electrical contact between metal plates18E and 18F. Further, in accordance with another embodiment of theinvention, if sensor body 12B is made of a sufficiently flexiblematerial and/or the hinged portion of sensor body 12B is sufficientlyelastic, ferrite pieces 14E, 14F may extend all of the way to the insidefaces of sensor body 12B on both sides of sensor body 12B. In such anembodiment, sensing element 17 is inserted in either the hinged side orthe latching side of sensor body 12B between the faces of ferrite pieces14E, 14F to form the gap and make contact with ferrite pieces 14E, 14F.

Referring now to FIGS. 4A and 4B, a sensor 10C in accordance with yetanother embodiment of the invention is shown. Sensor 10C is similar tosensor 10 of FIGS. 1A-1C, so only differences between them will bedescribed below. Rather than including metal plates 18A and 18B and theportion of sensor body 12 that extends to provide the voltage sensingportion of sensor 10 in FIG. 1A, interface wire 15A extends within thecylindrical cavity formed by sensor body 12C and ferrite pieces 14A-14Bto provide voltage sensing, which can provide sufficient coupling toperform voltage sensing, in particular when only the phase of thevoltage on wire 3 is to be measured.

Referring now to FIG. 5, a circuit for receiving input from thecurrent/voltage sensors of FIGS. 1A-1C, 2A-2B, 3A-3B and 4A-4B is shownin a block diagram. Interface wires 15 from current sensing element 17provide input to a current measurement circuit 108A, which is an analogcircuit that appropriately scales and filters the current channel outputof the sensor. The output of current measurement circuit 108A isprovided as an input to an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 106, whichconverts the current output waveform generated by current measurementcircuit 108A to sampled values provided to a central processing unit(CPU) 100 that performs power calculations in accordance with programinstruction stored in a memory 104 coupled to CPU 104. Alternatively,current measurement circuit 108A may be omitted and current sensingelement 17 may be connected directly to ADC 106. The power usage by thecircuit associated with a particular sensor can be determined byassuming that the circuit voltage is constant (e.g., 115 Vrms forelectrical branch circuits in the U.S.) and that the phase relationshipbetween the voltage and current is aligned (i.e., in-phase). However,while the assumption of constant voltage is generally sufficient, asproperly designed properly distribution systems do not let the linevoltage sag more than a small amount, e.g., <3%, the phase relationshipbetween voltage and current is dependent on the power factor of theload, and can vary widely and dynamically by load and over time.Therefore, it is generally desirable to at least know the phaserelationship between the branch circuit voltage and current in order toaccurately determine power usage by the branch circuit.

Interface wire 15A from the voltage channel of the sensor is provided toa voltage measurement circuit 108B, which is an analog circuit thatappropriately scales and filters the voltage channel output of thesensor. A zero-crossing detector 109 may be used to provide phase-onlyinformation to a central processing unit 100 that performs powercalculations, alternatively or in combination with providing an outputof voltage measurement circuit to an input of ADC 106. Alternatively,voltage measurement circuit 108B may be omitted and interface wire 15Aconnected directly to ADC 106. An input/output (I/O) interface 102provides either a wireless or wired connection to a local or externalmonitoring system. When power factor is not taken into account, theinstantaneous power used by each branch circuit can be computed as:P _(BRANCH) =V _(rms) *I _(meas)where V_(rms) is a constant value, e.g. 115V, and I_(meas) is a measuredrms current value. Power value P_(BRANCH) may be integrated over time toyield the energy use. When the phase of the voltage is known, then thepower may be computed more accurately as:P _(BRANCH) =V _(rms) *I _(meas)*cos(Φ)where Φ is a difference in phase angle between the voltage and currentwaveforms. The output of zero-crossing detector 109 may be compared withthe position of the zero crossings in the current waveform generated bycurrent measurement circuit 108A and the time ΔT between the zerocrossings in the current and voltage used to generate phase difference Φfrom the line frequency (assuming the line frequency is 60 Hz):Φ=2π*60*ΔTIn general, the current waveform is not truly sinusoidal and the aboveapproximation may not yield sufficiently accurate results. A moreaccurate method is to multiply current and voltage samples measured at asampling rate much higher than the line frequency. The sampled valuesthus approximate instantaneous values of the current and voltagewaveforms and the energy may be computed as:Σ(V _(n) *I _(n))A variety of arithmetic methods may be used to determine power, energyand phase relationships from the sampled current and voltagemeasurements.

While the invention has been particularly shown and described withreference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood bythose skilled in the art that the foregoing and other changes in form,and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A sensor for sensing an electric potential on awire of a power distribution system and a current passing through thewire, the sensor comprising: a housing for detachably coupling thesensor to the wire, wherein the housing comprises two portionsmechanically coupled together such that the housing is closed around thewire when the sensor is coupled to the wire; a current sensing deviceintegrated in the housing for providing a first output indicative of thecurrent passing through the wire, the current sensing device includingat least three ferrite cylinder portions disposed within correspondingones of the housing portions, wherein when the housing is coupled to thewire, the wire passes through a central void defined by the ferritecylinder portions extending through a central axis thereof, and whereina gap is defined along a circumference of a cylinder formed by theferrite cylinder portions, and wherein the current sensing devicefurther comprises a semiconductor magnetic field sensor disposed withinthe gap, wherein the gap is located at an circumferential positionsubstantially rotated away from the junctions of the housing portions,whereby the semiconductor magnetic field sensor is configured to becoupled to an external circuit without interfering with the operation ofthe housing, wherein the first output is an output of the semiconductormagnetic field sensor; and a voltage sensing device integrated in thehousing for providing a second output indicative of the electricpotential on the wire, wherein the voltage sensing device and thecurrent sensing device do not make electrical contact with the wire. 2.The sensor of claim 1, wherein the housing portions are rotatablycoupled along an axis parallel to the central axis of the ferritecylinder portions and disposed at a circumference of the housing,whereby the housing forms a clamshell that is configured to be securedaround the wire when the wire is disposed within the central voiddefined by the ferrite cylinder portions.
 3. The sensor of claim 1,wherein the voltage sensing device comprises at least one metal cylinderportion disposed within the housing and axially displaced from thecurrent sensing device along a length of the housing, wherein the secondoutput is a voltage of an electrical connection to the at least onemetal cylinder portion.
 4. The sensor of claim 1, wherein the voltagesensing device comprises at least one metal cylinder portion disposedwithin the central void and through which the wire is disposed when thehousing is coupled to the wire, wherein the second output is a voltageof an electrical connection to the at least one metal cylinder portion.5. The sensor of claim 4, wherein the at least one metal cylinderportion is a metal layer deposited on or affixed to at least one of theferrite cylinder portions.
 6. The sensor of claim 1, wherein the voltagesensing device comprises a second wire inserted in parallel with thewire and disposed within the central void, wherein the second output isa voltage of an electrical connection to the second wire.